Jason Statham has starred in some popular action movies over the years, but he also starred in a fantasy RPG video game adaptation, considered one of the worst films of his career. Statham has settled into a solid career as a modern-day action hero, with fun movies like The Beekeeper, The Meg, and Crank remaining popular with genre fans. While he has also taken a role in the Fast and Furious franchise, he has proudly avoided acting in superhero movies because he wants to keep things realistic for his fight scenes.
However, there was one movie where things were very unrealistic, and it might be a good reason Statham remains leery of more fantastical action movies. Statham has more than one of these movie types to his credit, with John Carpenter’s Ghost of Mars, a horror sci-fi film, and The One, an action sci-fi outing. However, it was his fantasy RPG adaptation In the Name of the King that remains the one movie that most Jason Statham fans prefer to forget about in his career.
Jason Statham Starred In A 2007 Adaptation Of The Dungeon Siege Games
Jason Statham Was A Farmer Who Rose Up To Fight Monsters
In 2001, Jason Statham accepted his first-ever full-on action movie role in Ghosts of Mars, a John Carpenter horror movie that was a remake of ᴀssault on Precinct 13. This led to several great action movies, including leading The Transporter series and starring in the brilliant action movie Crank. However, his career almost hit a huge stumbling block in 2008 when he starred in the adaptation In the Name of the King, directed by Uwe Boll.
The movie was based on the RPG game Dungeon Siege, and Statham had some talented actors in the cast with him. Statham stars as Farmer, a man whose hometown ends up under siege by creatures known as the Krug, all controlled by Gallian (Ray Liotta), a man who wants to conquer and rule Ehb. Also appearing in the cast are names like Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys-Davies, Ron Perlman, Claire Forlani, Matthew Lillard, and Burt Reynolds.
Boll clearly had his eyes on creating something big like The Lord of the Rings.
Farmer heads off with two companions, Norick (Ron Perlman) and Bastian (Will Sanderson), to find Farmer’s wife, Solana (Forlani), taken prisoner by the Krug. Meanwhile, the movie has the mystery of who Farmer really is. In the end, Boll clearly had his eyes on creating something big like The Lord of the Rings, and despite the movie’s failure at the box office, it somehow continued on with two sequels coming in 2010 and 2011.
In The Name Of The King Received 2 Sequels, But Without Jason Statham
Dolph Lundgren & Dominic Purcell Replaced Jason Statham
There were two In the Name of the King sequels, but In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds featured none of the impressive cast from the first movie returning. Instead, the only big name in the movie was Dolph Lundgren, who plays a special forces soldier named Granger who was sucked into a time portal and ends up hundreds of years in the past. Still directed by Uwe Boll, the movie only has three critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (all negative) and a 16% audience score. It also had a much lower budget, at only $4.5 million.
Uwe Boll was back with a third movie, In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission, which knocked the budget down to $3.5 million and didn’t bring back Lundgren. Instead, Dominic Purcell took the lead role here as Hazen, another man sucked back into the past, the same as the last movie. This time, he is an ᴀssᴀssin tasked with helping finally win this war. It only had one critic’s review (negative) and an even lower 10% audience score.
What Went Wrong With The Dungeon Siege Movies
Uwe Boll Was The Director Of All Three Movies
In the Name of the King sounded like a can’t-miss film, and with a $60 million budget, fans of Dungeon Siege had to hope this would bring their beloved game to life. However, the movie had one big problem. Uwe Boll directed it, his fourth game adaptation in a row, following House of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, Alone in the Dark, and BloodRayne. Of those movies, none broke 5% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Alone in the Dark sitting at 1%. Despite its $60 million budget, the film had a box office take of $13.1 million.
In each of the three In the Name of the King movies, Uwe Boll had solid actors in the lead, with Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Dominic Purcell. However, the biggest complaint about Uwe Boll’s movies is his skills as a director. His cast in the first Dungeon Siege adaptation was terrific, but it still failed to win over audiences or critics. Luckily for Statham, he had plenty lined up and rebounded with The Expendables and The Mechanic, which continued his long, successful role as a leading man in the action genre.
